As many bands that I have heard pay homage to the Gothenburg sound, The Duskfall has to be one of the most efficient at capturing the very essence of it. SOURCE sounds as if it were the missing album between Dark Tranquillity’s THE MIND’S I and PROJECTOR, or where In Flames left off after WHORACLE. Vocalist Kai Jaakkola does Tomas Lindberg even better than Lindberg himself! The dueling guitars are here in full force and the songs bear just the right amount of melody to balance with the rougher sounds. While the “tributes” to melodic death are a dime a dozen these days, The Duskfall truly has captured a moment in time and delivered it with uncanny accuracy. Producer Daniel Bergstrand (Strapping Young Lad’s CITY, all three Darkane albums) has captured the sound and the essence of that scene and wrapped it all up in one nice little package. SOURCE is short and to the point with only eight tracks totaling 33 minutes following the old show biz rule, “always leave them wanting more.” To that I say, I WANT MORE!!!!

Right from the get-go, this CD had me hooked. “Case Closed” is a speedy number and the power and intensity of the vocals, drumming and guitar melodies are quite spectacular. The chorus is ultra-catchy but never devolves into clean vocals or commercial hookiness. “Striving To Have Nothing”—the best cut on the CD—could be right off THE MIND’S I or WHORACLE with its swirling guitar melodies, chunky bass line and coarse vocals. Comparisons to The Haunted (is there a band today that DOESN’T get compared to them in one way or another?!?!) can be found on “The Grand Scheme” and the last two tracks, “Lead Astray” and “The Destroyer.” The verses are thrashy while the choruses are heavy and the vocals are raspy, yet perfectly understandable.

SOURCE was one of those all-too-rare pleasant surprises. The bastardizing of the Gothenburg sound over the last few years has left many people hungry for a true return to the magic of early In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates. This CD does that and almost washes away ten years of hangers on and copycats who tried (and mostly failed) to resurrect the Swedish death sound. SOURCE is an open invitation to those of us who have been waiting for a glimmer of hope in the overcrowded pool of melodic death acts.